


Crimson Days: Fighting Together

by BattleScarredRaven



Series: Crimson Days 2021 [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Crimson Days 2021, Dark Future Verse, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, References to Guardian Pregnancy, Smut, references to pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:27:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29529831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BattleScarredRaven/pseuds/BattleScarredRaven
Summary: Bungie cancelled Crimson Days. Time to bring it back with some one-shot writing prompts.Prompts list taken fromhereandhere.Day 4: Fighting Together.After the Bombardment, in a Dark Future somewhere, they only have each other.
Relationships: Ikora Rey/Zavala
Series: Crimson Days 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148726
Kudos: 4





	Crimson Days: Fighting Together

**Author's Note:**

> The Dark Future lore absolutely kills me, especially how *SPOILER* Ikora dies in it. 
> 
> I'll probably explore it more later, but for now, you get this snippet. A Dark Future, in line with the rest of my Ikora/Zavala verse, where both of them are still alive and kicking. After all, Elsie goes through many iterations of the Dark Future; who's to say one where both Zavala and Ikora lived didn't happen?

**_“_ ** **_**I** failed the City. I failed you. Yet, you still fight at my side. Why?”_ **

**_“Nobody could have foreseen this destruction. As for failing me, don’t be ridiculous. You’re alive, and you’re still fighting. That’s good enough for me. And why? I thought that would be obvious.”_ **

**_“Because you’re the only person willing to put up with me?”_ **

**_“Hah, something like that. And... we’re a fireteam. Partners. Because… because I...”_ **

**_“... Because bonds like that are not easily forsaken, or broken. I know.”_ **

**_“Not just any bond. Ours.”_ **

\- Commander Zavala and Ikora Rey.

* * *

_Two figures picked their way through a desolate landscape of charred, broken buildings and cracked tarmac paths that had once been bustling streets. Beyond, crumbling walls surrounded them in a series of growing concentric rings, above the centre of which was filled with the hollowness of the dark, cold night. This place had once been full of life. Of laughter, of the buzz of ordinary people going about their daily routines, unfazed by the outside world. Ships had flown in and out like bees darting around a hive between trips of harvesting pollen. Vehicles and people had once traversed the roads and paths, like blood flowing through arteries and pulsing through veins. Children had chased each other, shrieking and laughing, while adults called in vain for them to be careful._

_This had been their_ **_home_ ** _. A thriving city._ **_The_ ** _City; the Last Safe City of Earth._

_No longer. The Hive had seen to that. And once their mighty war machine had bled the City dry, like vultures to a decaying carcass, the rest of humanity’s enemies had swiftly moved in: Fallen, Red Legion remnants, corrupted members of the City’s own ranks and exiles who had hated the City from the get go. All moved to feast on the bounty, carve at broken, twisted flesh. Any who had been foolish enough to remain after the initial Bombardment had long perished in their crossfire, bones picked clean as sure as the husk of ruins where they had fallen._

_Both figures - a pale, grubby skinned Awoken man, and a dark-skinned, battle-scarred human woman - paused after cresting another building, the former perching slightly higher up on a crumbling wall, binoculars pressed to the ring of clear skin around his eyes as he surveyed the area. His robed companion had settled down into a nearby corner, pulling out metal decanters from a crudely made leather backpack. She tossed one to her more heavily armoured companion; he caught it easily without looking, as if he had been expecting it._

_“Should be safe for now.” He let the binoculars drop and settle into gentle sway at his chest by the cord around his neck. He twisted open the decanter with his teeth, taking a quick swig of the water within, before continuing. “But we shouldn’t linger here any longer than necessary.”_

_A cloudy and honey coloured eye met his glowing blue ones, but his companion said nothing, opting to sip her own drink instead. He remembered a time, not so long ago in the grand scheme of their lives, where she used to do nothing_ **_but_ ** _talk and speak her mind freely. Nowadays, he would struggle to get more than a few words from the battle-worn woman every other day or so._

 _But that was fine. They had been roaming the wilds together now for decades. Hell, it might have even been a century, at this point. Before that, they had known each other at least another century, and known_ **_of_ ** _one another a good three hundred years prior to that. They didn’t need words to convey their wants, their feelings. They simply, as with most things about each other,_ **_knew_ ** _, reacting almost before the other had thought. It was how they had survived all this time, where others like them had long since perished, all but forgotten._

_“You’re going to ask me something.” The statement that fell from the Awoken man’s lips wasn’t quite a question; if anything, it almost sounded like an order. “‘Let nothing go unsaid.’ That’s the one thing we agreed on at the start of all this. Don’t tell me you mean to renege on that deal now after all this time, Ikora.”_

_The former Warlock Vanguard’s stare grew harder, if at all possible. A phantom coil of Void Light pressed against him, a cool and fleeting sensation, before her dry lips moved to speak._

_“I would never do that.” Her voice was quiet and raw from disuse, jaw setting with seriousness before continuing, “There’s nothing for us here, Zavala.”_

_She doesn’t say it, but the former Vanguard Commander can hear the question Ikora asks him anyway: ‘Why have you brought us here?’ It is a question Zavala has all too often asked himself since making the decision to return to their ruined home a few weeks ago._

_“I know,” was his equally quiet reply. He hated how unsure he sounded. He always sounded uncertain these days. There was a pause of consideration before he spoke again. “But… this is the last place anyone will come looking for us. Where_ **_she_ ** _will come looking for us.”_

 _Zavala could barely bring himself to watch as Ikora grimaced in pain; the_ **_she_ ** _in question could be a few people at this point, though dredging up any of them was still enough to bring the nightmares of betrayal flooding back. Of the Bombardment; the day they and the City had collapsed into a ruined shell of former glory._

_“I’m sorry.” He apologised almost reflexively, guilt crossing his pale blue, almost white, features. “I shouldn’t have-”_

_“It’s fine.” Ikora cut him off sharply, shoving her decanter back into the makeshift satchel roughly. “Nobody could have predicted it, right?” She reached for his. “We should get moving.”_

_“... Right.” Zavala handed her the metal bottle without protest, desperately trying not to sound too disappointed. He did not think he came even remotely close to succeeding as he offered a hand to help the Warlock back to her feet._

_She ignored it, pushing herself up to full height on her own, swinging the satchel onto her back and dusting down her tattered, faded purple robe. Effortlessly, she vaulted over the wall he had been perched on, landing somewhere below at the foot of the ruined building with a grunt._

_The Awoken Titan sighed to himself quietly, mentally berating himself for screwing things up between him and Ikora yet again, before vaulting down after her in silence and following as they continued exploring the ruins of the City together._

_They wouldn’t speak again for a few days after that._

* * *

_Their next words came at the clashing of steel. A few Fallen scavengers, nothing major. But they had been heavily armed and armoured, doubtless to protect themselves from anyone seeking to claim the trove they sat upon. It, as they were soon to find out, would do little to protect them against the wrath of two former Vanguard leaders, seeking vengeance for any who dared defile their former home._

_“Blindside!” Zavala shouted over the din of battle, his massive cleaver-like Sword clashing against the blade of a Fallen big enough to have been a Captain at some point. “Two vandals!”_

_Ikora unloaded one burst of pellets from her shotgun into the torso of a dreg, before spinning both herself and her weapon to face her blinded right side and her two new foes. The first, she caught around the head with the stock of her weapon, hard enough to crack the scavenger’s helmet; the second was taken out by a point blank blast to the neck._

_At their defeat, Zavala pushed back against his own opponent, but the Fallen was stronger, easily shunting him back. Had he a more stable access to the Light, it would have been no contest. But ever since the Bombardment, since the Traveler…_

_“Zavala!”_

_The cry from Ikora startled both Titan and Fallen, but the former managed to recover first as she ran towards him, quickly sensing what it was the Warlock wanted from him. He held his Sword flat above his head just as Ikora jumped, and Zavala punched the blade up, propelling her high into the air like a gymnast from a springboard. She bore down on the confused Fallen with all her weight and might, the force of using the pirate to break her fall crushing all four of his shoulders with an audible crunch. A shotgun blast to the face took care of the rest._

_“An... interesting way to handle things.” Zavala’s lips twitched when the dust settled; once upon a time, it might have been a smile, but these days, things were far too grim for that. “Good thinking.”_

_He held out his hand to help Ikora to her feet, just as he had a few days ago. Unlike then, her good eye stared at the offered limb, before grasping it firmly with her own. The Titan’s heart filled with hope as he hauled the Warlock to her feet, bouncing his Sword loosely in his free hand._

_Perhaps things weren’t so bad, after all._

* * *

_“I’m sorry.”_

_Zavala paused his inventory taking with a start, side glancing at the Warlock the other side of the dying fire. Her eyes were shut, but the slight purse of her lips confirmed she had indeed spoken._

_“What for?” He set aside a couple of magazines for his auto rifle in favour of both feeding the fire and entertaining Ikora’s apology. She spoke so rarely to him, even more so without his prompting, that he gave her his undivided attention whenever she did so. “You’ve-”_

_“If you say I’ve done nothing wrong, we both know you’d be lying.” The Warlock’s eyes snapped open all at once then. “I’ve been… stubborn over the past few days. Weeks, even. Reliving my guilt, and punishing_ **_you_ ** _for it. I’ve not been fair to you.”_

_“You told me when we first set out together nobody could have predicted any of this.” Zavala gestured around them with a lump of wood, before chucking it into the fire. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. If anything, I should have more to feel guilty about than you. I was Commander of this once great City. The people trusted me to keep them safe, and the moment their home fell, I failed them.”_

_Silence fell between them, bar the crackling of the campfire in the shadow of the collapsed Tower._

_Then, “_ **_I_ ** _could have predicted this.”_

_Glowing blue Awoken eyes stared at cloudy and honey coloured ones, softly reprimanding. “Ikora…”_

_“She sent me a letter. Told me about Stasis. How she was in control, that all that was needed was a balanced mind.” Ikora confessed bitterly, fists clenching on top of her crossed legs. “She asked me to join her. I nearly_ **_did_ ** _. But then I rejected her. All that time, she served me, never wavering, never once asking for anything in return, nor expecting it. Then, the one time she_ **_does_ ** _ask for something, the one time she_ **_dared_ ** _demand trust in her… I turn my back on her! Do you hear me, Zavala? I turned my back on her; she didn’t turn her back on us! If I had just…”_

_Zavala shifted, shuffling across to the Warlock, before kneeling in front of her, taking ahold of her gloved, clenched hands tenderly in his own. “Eris was playing with fire, with forces we did not and still do not understand. The moment Darkness touched her, when she came to you asking you to give in to that same temptation, she was already lost to us. Stasis, like the Light, cannot be controlled. But Light can be tamed. That is where the two differ. Stasis just corrupts and corrupts. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar at best, and already lost to the temptation of Dark power at worst.”_

_“I could have stopped her._ **_Should_ ** _have stopped her.”_

_Zavala pressed his forehead to Ikora’s. “No more than I could have stopped Dallas’ corruption once I had forbidden her from going to avenge Cayde. We… we were just trying our best to protect them both, Ikora. They were the ones who chose to turn that against us. Remember that.”_

_She breathed heavily against him. Once, twice. She was counting, the Titan realised. Trying to anchor herself. He rubbed soothing circles on the backs of her hands, waiting patiently. If she wanted to continue, then he wouldn’t force it to happen, just allow her to go in her own time. And if she didn’t… well, he wouldn’t blame her._

_“..._ **_He_ ** _might still be here with us, if-” Ikora’s voice cracked after a moment, barely choking back her emotions._

_“Don’t think like that.” Zavala whispered softly to her, his voice soothing. “Our son is out there, waiting for us. And we will find him. Or he will find us.”_

_The Warlock pulled back to study him, despair and grief in her glistening eyes. “You believe that? After all this time?”_

_“Hope. It is a powerful thing.” Zavala spoke honestly, the faint hint of the first smile he’d ever given in nearly a hundred years on his lips. “It sustains us. Keeps us fighting, you and I. Until we see this through, or we see our end. Together.”_

_Dark lips captured pale ones in a tender kiss; at first soft and cautious, then growing more passionate and ravenous - almost desperate, even - with confidence. Before long, Warlock was atop Titan, legs astride his waist._

_“Ikora,” he warned quietly, glancing up at her meaningfully, mindful of their surroundings. Though they weren’t likely to be spotted this close to the ruins of the Tower, sound could still carry to unwelcome ears._

_“Please,” she begged him, which had more of an effect on him than her previous actions combined. Even in the days before, when everything was better and the City was still intact, she rarely ever pleaded._

_Zavala almost didn’t know what to do with it, so he settled on kissing the Warlock again. When her hands started working on removing his one remaining shoulder pauldron (his right long ago lost to one-too-many firefights), he allowed his own to work on peeling back her robes._

_Before long, armour and clothes were piled up neatly next to them, both Guardians fully exposed to the cool, nighttime air, only the fire and each other to keep themselves warm. Ikora was laid on top of Zavala, breasts flush to his chest, peppering kisses from his face down his tattooed neck. Her hips rested on his abdomen, a different kind of lips smearing slick across his toned stomach. Zavala, for the most part, let her do as she wished, gently digging his blunt nails in-between her shoulder blades and lightly sucking on her collarbone, eliciting a gasp from Ikora every so often. Sometimes, she’d reward him with a rock of her hips, pressing back delightfully against his slowly building erection, causing Zavala to have to hold back his own noises of pleasure._

_“Last chance to back out.” He murmured at her, raising one hand to delicately cup the more battle-scarred side of her face, thumb tracing the line of scar tissue responsible for her blinded right eye. Not that such a thing bothered him; she was still the Ikora he knew, wonderful in every way. “Are you sure you want to do this now?”_

_“Every day we get through is another day I haven’t lost you, Zavala.” Ikora’s nose brushed the stubble on his chin. “We both know that, sometime in the future, our luck will run out. It isn’t a question of_ **_if_ ** _, but_ **_when_ ** _. And if that day was tomorrow, wouldn’t you want one of your last memories to be this? Let nothing go unsaid?”_

_And he did smile at that, the reminder of their promise to each other, and nodded. “Let nothing go unsaid, indeed. Show me.”_

_Kisses turned to teeth grazing his neck, and Ikora rocked back once more on to Zavala’s aching member before shifting herself around so that her slick folds were pressed to the Titan’s lips. He wasted no time in delving his tongue into her greedily, while she took him into her mouth, licking up and down his shaft relentlessly. He groaned against her, trying not to thrust his hips so hard that he made her gag on him._

_“Light, Zavala.” She eventually pulled off the column of flesh with a wet pop, breathless both with her own actions and the Titan’s ministrations. “Keep doing that, and I’ll-”_

_The Warlock was interrupted by a particularly hard suck to her clit, forcing her to bite her lip to stop the loud moan of pleasure escaping her. Ikora squeezed her eyes shut, gripping Zavala’s dick tighter involuntarily for a moment, before lifting herself off his face._

_“Too much?” He asked the second his mouth was free._

_“Only from you.” She turned around to face him again, her now positively wet entrance hovering above Zavala’s member. “Only ever from you.”_

_She eased onto him slowly, the Titan’s hands snapping to her hips to help guide her on to him, the combination of her own arousal and earlier coating of saliva on his dick making the process a whole lot easier. Still, Zavala was a considerate lover; though he could have quite easily pushed all the way into Ikora’s depths by now, he chose not to, keeping at whatever pace she desired and allowing her to adjust to his girth as they moved._

_“Easy.” He encouraged her, leaning up slightly to kiss between her breasts. “Take as much time as you need.”_

_She did, but even then it wasn’t long before Ikora had fully hilted herself upon him, hips pressed to his own. Neither moved as she adjusted, save Zavala running pale hands soothingly up and down her curved, athletic frame, admiring the contrast between her marred skin and his. Eventually, the Warlock pressed herself flush to him again, her teeth gently worrying his lower lip._

_“I’m… I’m good.” She panted, trying not to sound too needy but her good eye betrayed her desire far too easily. “You can…”_

_She didn’t need to say anything else, and nor could she once Zavala started a slow roll of his hips. The burn in her loins, the heat coiling deep within her, was almost immediately too much. It made her feel so alive in a way she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time. She cursed under her breath._

_“I’ve got you, Ikora.” Zavala assured her with a mumbled promise to her ear. “It’s just us, now.”_

_That wasn’t strictly true, statistically speaking. The Fallen they had both fought earlier probably weren’t the only inhabitants left inside the ruined final bastion of humanity; no doubt there were other scavengers like them eking out their meager living squatting among the rubble and debris. But neither much cared about that right now. In this moment, wrapped in each other’s tender embrace, there truly was only them. The rest of the bleak world did not matter._

_“Zavala…” Ikora whispered the Titan’s name, a breathless plea, starting to roll her own hips in tandem with his. He would push up into her, she would rock down onto him; he would go to withdraw, she would drag slickened lips up his shaft until it had almost left her completely. It was bliss, a dance to a song only they knew the motions to. “I… I need…”_

_“Shh, shh.” He ran his fingers across the top of her skull, where her normally shaven hair had started to grow into rough, close-cropped fuzz. “No need to rush.”_

_They paused their lovemaking for a moment, giving Zavala enough time to gently roll them both over. Hard concrete scraped across Ikora’s back, but she didn’t protest this change of position, for it allowed the Titan now above her to carve deeper into her body, and access to more of her than their previous position had allowed._

_Which, the Awoken was quick to take advantage of when he sealed his lips around a dark, sensitive nipple and sucked. Hard._

_“Oh,_ **_fuck_ ** _.” Ikora swore eloquently. She rarely cursed out loud, one of the few things that hadn’t changed from before. She clung to professionalism much like he clung to hope; the last time he ever recalled her swearing had been at Cayde’s private funeral. Even when she was tired of being pregnant with their son, going through the pain of giving birth to him all those decades ago, she had maintained her demeanour. “Sky above, Zavala…”_

 _He didn’t let up, swirling his tongue over the straining bud, one hand moving to cup and squeeze the other globe of flesh next to his cheek. Zavala felt the Warlock squeeze around his member, making his breath hitch and his hips jerk slightly faster. He was acutely aware of Ikora’s ragged panting, the_ **_thud-thud_ ** _of her heart pulsing beneath his lips in her heaving chest, the way both quickened the more his tongue explored. And the more Zavala drank her in, by sight, by all the little sounds she made, by his touch against her, the more he ached for her. Centuries old, and he had never felt so spry in all his time of living. Ironic that he should feel this way now, near the end of all things. He pulled himself from Ikora’s breast, chuckling breathlessly at the notion._

_“What’s so amusing?” Her scuffed and scarred eyebrow raised up, incredulous._

_“Nothing.” Zavala shook his head, kissing her briefly, and Ikora could taste the salty tang of her own sweat and arousal on his lips. “Just… together, like this… you make me feel so alive.”_

_Her gaze softened; she understood now. “You were laughing at the irony.”_

_“Yes.”_

_“They do say that facing certain doom brings out the best in you.”_

_“And what do they say about facing certain doom with someone you care about at your side?”_

_Ikora’s hips thrust up of their own accord, Zavala’s voice whispering by her ear breaking down her legendary self-control. “I don’t know, but I’d say you make me feel more alive than I could have ever imagined, too.” Her eyes searched her companion’s face for a moment, warmth settling in them and radiating from her face. “Zavala, I… let us be alive. Together, tonight, in this moment.”_

_His teeth grazed the lobe of her left ear. “I am never more alive than when I am with you, Ikora.” Then, he pressed his forehead to hers._

_Her reaction was instant, opening herself up to him without hesitation. Their connection was dimmer compared to the days before the Traveler had forsaken them and tapping into the Light had been as natural as breathing, but their Light-bond was still there. He felt Ikora’s cool Void press up against him, soft like gently caressing fingers across skin, not the usual tempest of power she had once displayed. His own Void-touched Arc reached out to meet her, and for a moment, they were as one._

_Zavala shifted - or maybe she did; it was hard to tell, connected both physically and now mentally too, as they were - thrusting deeper into Ikora, carving into her core. He could feel himself as he moved through their bond, feel as his shaft dragged pleasurably past her walls. Nails digging into skin, hands massaging breasts, a finger rubbing at the Warlock’s clit as they both worked themselves to completion… it was difficult to tell where each of them started and ended, whose limbs were whose, whose peak was building first…_

_Then he felt himself begin to shake, and knew from experience - both his own, and from the Warlock’s memories - that it was a telltale sign to Ikora’s nearness to coming undone. She barely managed a cry of warning before clamping her legs around Zavala’s waist, drawing him further inside her. Her back arched, whole body convulsing uncontrollably, when she finally came. The Warlock’s walls pulsed against the length of the Titan’s throbbing dick, almost drawing his own orgasm from him, but he just about clung to the precipice. He wanted to savour this, savour her. Who knew when they’d be able to do this again, if ever._

_Zavala started thrusting again through Ikora’s orgasm, causing her to call out once more in overstimulation, burying her face into the crook of his shoulder. He bit down on the juncture between her neck and shoulder; not quite enough to make her bleed, but certain to leave a visible mark, even against her dark skin. Ikora’s nails dug into his shimmering, battle-damaged back and he felt her shake again, but he didn’t think she’d stopped after the first orgasm. His own breath started coming out as laboured pants, and that’s when he knew he himself was near to coming apart._

_“Ikora, I…”_

_She held him close, preventing him from moving away, as her second orgasm crashed over her, somehow stronger than the first. Two quick punches of his shaft deep into her, and Zavala was coming too, spilling his liquid warmth inside Ikora._

_And oh, how he felt_ **_that_ ** _across their Light-bond, spreading inside her, as both Guardians melted into blissful, post-coital afterglow, utterly spent. Following some unknown instinct, Zavala rested a hand on Ikora’s stomach; hers soon joined him after, and they laced their fingers there. Bar that, and their laboured breathing, neither could bring themself to move. Not yet._

_It was several minutes before Ikora pressed her feet back to the ground, pushing back against the floor to allow herself enough freedom to breathe without Zavala’s full weight pressing down on her. He eventually got the hint, rolling them both back over again so she could lay on top of him, holding her close. Neither made any effort to pull away, nor get back into an acceptable state of dress, even though the cold was biting on them now that the heat of arousal had faded. In fact, both were perfectly content to stay as they were, Zavala running a soothing hand down Ikora’s spine, while the Warlock rested her head on the Titan’s chest, shutting her eyes and listening to his beating heart._

_It was Zavala who eventually broke the peaceful silence. “Ikora, I… I love you.”_

_She started then, her whole body going rigid and her eyes snapping open. Cautiously, she lifted her head to look at him, hardly daring to believe he had truly spoken the words he had just said._

_“I think I have for a while now.” He continued, seemingly oblivious to her reaction, staring up at the starless sky where the Traveler had once hung, a bleached bone beacon in the night. “Since before all this, if I’m being truthful. But I… I was too much of a coward to admit it back then, we had our duties and…” He swallowed. “I did not want you to think less of me.”_

_Ikora felt like she had been sucker punched. She didn’t think she could be surprised anymore, least of all by Zavala, yet here he was, stunning her so much, she had to practically force her next words to leave her mouth. “Why would I think less of you?”_

_“After Kayde was born I… I didn’t want you to think I cared about you just for his sake.” Zavala admitted quietly. “Confessing my feelings that first night you were in hospital, getting checked over, as I had originally planned to, wouldn’t have gone over so well. So I… didn’t.”_

_All at once, Ikora found herself relaxing. She wanted to laugh at his absurdity, she really did, but she just about managed to outwardly contain herself. Keeping herself in check across their Light-bond, however, was another matter._

_The Titan finally lifted his head slightly off the ground, staring down at her with a deep frown. “I don’t get what’s so funny.”_

_The sincerity with which he told her this only made the situation more amusing in the Warlock’s eyes. “You kept your feelings about me hidden for over a hundred years?” It might have been impressive had it not been downright funny. “Seriously?”_

_“Yes.”_

_For the first time in decades, Ikora properly smiled. “You’re an idiot.”_

_That… wasn’t the reaction Zavala had been expecting in the slightest. He had expected something far more tempered, perhaps even somber, considering he was baring himself openly before her._

_“Can you at least take this somewhat seriously?” He feigned irritation. He couldn’t truly be annoyed with Ikora, not when his confession had brought the first smile he had seen in years to her face._

_“I am!” It wasn’t quite the truth, they both knew that, but neither was it fully a lie. “That doesn’t change the fact you are an absolute hopeless bonehead of a man, Zavala. After all we’d been through at that point and since, you really thought I’d think_ **_less_ ** _of you?”_

_Zavala pinched the brow of his nose between thumb and forefinger in exasperation. “Well, when you put it like that… I guess, in hindsight, I should have said something sooner.”_

_“Zavala.” Ikora propped herself up by her elbows to get a better look at him, amusement fading into seriousness. “I could_ **_never_ ** _think less of you, certainly not for loving me. Because I… I love you too.”_

_Glowing eyes blinked in surprise. “You do?”_

_“Yes. I think I’ve been denying it to myself for longer than I care to think about it. We’ve always been on this collision course towards each other, I feel. It’s past time we stopped prolonging the inevitable, and let it happen.” The Warlock kissed the tip of the Titan’s nose. “Make good on our promise to one another.”_

_“Let nothing go unsaid?” He affirmed questioningly._

_She echoed him. “Let nothing go unsaid.”_

_“In that case,” Zavala rumbled quietly, bringing the back of his hand to stroke Ikora’s cheek tenderly, “my heart is yours, Ikora Rey, until the day I take my final breath and my body and soul depart this world.”_

_“And mine is yours, Zavala.” She leaned gratefully into his soft touch. “Until the day all Lights go out, and we meet once again in the Sky’s embrace.”_

_They each held the other’s naked form close like two halves of a ying-yang, light skin against dark,the cold night no longer as biting against them. Both shut their eyes, feeling safe despite the potential dangers in the ruins around them._

_In the comfort of each other’s arms, sleep soon claimed Ikora and Zavala. The next day, they would continue their ceaseless search, their unending fight. Together._

_As lovers._


End file.
